In 2021, Facebook changed its name to “Meta,” since that was the first part of the word “Metaverse.” This is appropriate because “leg” is the first part of the word heritageand the lack of legs would be the longest lasting legacy of Meta’s failed Metaverse experiment.
Please listen. This is bad. We should all lament that the Metaverse didn’t work as the future of the Internet. Because the AI slopiverse that was to be replaced by the Metaverse is far worse.
To be fair, rumors of the demise of the Metaverse are somewhat exaggerated. Horizon Worlds, the flagship Metaverse experience owned and operated by Meta, will continue as a mobile game. Following fan reaction to the announcement that the VR version would be discontinued, Meta announced that it would continue. Games for the Quest headset still exist, and the “metaverse” as a concept of a digital place where avatars can spend real money on fake digital items is thriving (for better or worse) on Roblox. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth posted in the thread:
In fact, I spent some time with Horizon Worlds last year, and I can confirm that it sucked. Most of the other users I encountered seemed to be children (judging by their voices), but as an adult it was very uncomfortable to talk to strange children without their parents knowing, and it obscured my own true identity. It was just… boring. I didn’t want to talk to these strangers and didn’t have much “to do”. I spent some time at a “comedy club” where users could sign up and go on stage like it was an open mic night. You might not be surprised if not much comedy happens. The stage was often taken over by people who looked like 8-year-old kids who just wanted to sing Taylor Swift.
Meta’s Metaverse has always been a punchline and a joke. That product demo was probably one of the most humiliating moments for Mark Zuckerberg, who sweated into his T-shirt on stage. How awful this whole thing is has become a meme.
Most people thought this looked corny and bad, just like NFTs look fraudulent and bad, and now everyone is very happy that we were proven right. Partly because it feels good to be right, but also because for those who are deeply skeptical of the tech industry, they mistakenly believe that AI will fail like NFTs and the Metaverse. But that last part isn’t true. AI will become a reality. (That’s already the case!)
And in fact, that’s why we should be sad that the Metaverse didn’t work out. This was actually a beautiful idea. A vision of the Internet based on human connection and healthy leisure activities like going to comedy clubs and playing video games.
What did we get in return? We now have an internet that is full of misery, sloppy up the wazoo, and stuck. Did you know that Coldplay played a concert at Horizon World? Of course, that didn’t lead to a week of social media postings of two concertgoers caught on the jumbotron. It was safe to canood around in the Metaverse!
Consider what Meta launched after scaling back its Metaverse ambitions and ramping up its AI ambitions. A garbage chat feature that talks dirty to you in John Cena’s voice, and a standalone AI video slop feed that also has its own privacy crisis.
Mr. Mehta speaks sharply about the future of our company’s AI. “Soon, when you open our apps, there will be AI that understands you and can show you great content or even generate great personalized content for you,” Zuckerberg said during a recent earnings call.
But wouldn’t you just watch this tweet and say you’d rather strap giant goggles to your face and go listen to “Viva La Vida” right now than watch AI degrade the internet?
There’s no denying that it’s funny to make fun of Mark Zuckerberg, who was clearly wrong when he thought legless avatars were the future. Of course, that obviously wasn’t supposed to happen. But from where I was sitting, feet and all, it was a “sliding door” option preferable to whatever hill hell I was walking on right now.
Metaverse, rest in peace. You were too beautiful for this world.